Mu Qing felt a lot calmer knowing that Yun Bei Fen wasn’t in the room with them. Even though his odds of somehow winning this fight had become pretty much zero when Lu Wei also joined the fight, not needing to worry about the boy at least meant that he didn’t have to watch his step just as much and could also go all out with his attacks. If some stray weapon or energy went on the wrong trajectory, the only ones getting injured would be him and the trio. Neither was something he had to worry about too much.
With one worry less, Mu Qing focused more on attacking. In a fight against three other people who weren’t far behind in terms of cultivation, he was the first who would run out of energy. After wasting their time so they couldn’t pursue Zhi Guan and Liu Bao Ru, his best path forward was now to try and get in more hits and hopefully incapacitate at least one of them. If he did … well, maybe he stood a chance to turn this around somehow. He certainly couldn’t win but fleeing might actually be an option. It was just insanely difficult to do.
Between those three, Lu Wei was the weak link. He wasn’t a bad fighter but he wasn’t quite as quick on the uptake as the other two. He couldn’t see through more complicated matters easily because he had more of a black-and-white thinking and his overall grasp of the situation was weaker. The problem was that both Song Yu Zheng and Wen Xiang were well aware of that and would guard against him trying to make use of that. In turn … the one to actually attack to gain a chance was Wen Xiang.
Mu Qing’s mind raced, arriving at this choice after just a few heartbeats. He had just been hit and was tumbling toward Wen Xiang so the opportunity was perfect. He narrowed his eyes and fell further toward the attack that was heading his way.
Wen Xiang was a regular sword cultivator just like him. That also made him easier to deal with than Song Yu Zheng whose options for attacks and defenses differed largely due to the fact that he used a fan instead. If you weren’t familiar with the weapon and had never fought against someone using one, it was easy to miss something. With a weapon you wielded yourself, it was much easier to estimate your opponent’s capabilities and judge how to react.
In this case, Wen Xiang struck out horizontally, trying to both hit him and drive him back so he wouldn’t try to break out of the encirclement. That kind of attack naturally left the top and bottom undefended and might give someone a chance to escape that way. Going upward would make your position unstable though which was disadvantageous in a fight like this while the bottom would be defended by Song Yu Zheng toward the right and Lu Wei on the left.
In short, the usual response should be to fall back as much as you could, then try to evade whatever attack came from your back. This was why this kind of encirclement was a vicious cycle: No matter which direction you headed, the other three could cut off all options for retreat and could maneuver you from side to side, getting in several hits no matter how well you defended. After all, you could never have a full view of the situation and didn’t have enough hands to defend against three people at once.
Usually, this kind of setup was a death sentence for the person caught in the middle. But maybe such an understanding of the situation could also be used for his benefit.
Mu Qing raised his own weapon, pretending to meet Wen Xiang’s attack. They collided thanks to the inertia from the previous hit but as the next attack followed from behind, Mu Qing jumped up, evading that way. He turned around in the air, striking down with his sword. The blade hit Wen Xiang’s shoulder, making him stumble down.
Mu Qing didn’t bother to see how deeply he had managed to injure him. He let go of the weapon as soon as he couldn’t push any further and used the force to turn further, adding another blast of spiritual energy to propel himself further up. Finally, he somersaulted over Wen Xiang’s body and landed on the other side, directly rolling further on the ground because the next attack wouldn’t be far.
The hall was big enough. He put more distance between them in a flash, glanced behind, and then dashed to the door on the other side. Song Yu Zheng had caught Wen Xiang and was checking his injury while only Lu Wei was still following behind. He wouldn’t get a better opportunity than this.
Mu Qing didn’t bother opening doors. He threw a blast of spiritual energy at the door, directly exploding the wood and causing cracks to appear in the wall next to it. He rushed through, running as fast as he could. Even though he had finally made it out of their encirclement, he had been seriously injured before. Part of the reason he had managed to make it out was that those three had gotten complacent, thinking that they had him where he would surely die and even in a state where he was losing more and more energy as the fight continued. Thankfully, they had been wrong.
He took a sharp turn at a corner but in the distance, he could hear the sound of footsteps. Their fight likely hadn’t been quiet but at least it had mostly been contained in the hall. That last explosion was different though. Since it was in a hallway, it would echo further, alarming the other disciples. Thankfully, nobody but those three knew yet that he had returned to being on the righteous side so maybe he could make it as long as he was ahead of Lu Wei.
